First day of the Alaska trip. Got up early and did some chores on the computer. I made sure work stuff was tightened up, paid the bills, printed our travel documents and boarding passes, and packed all the paperwork for the boat. Went to get the mail. Normally, I would take the dogs with me for their daily treat car ride, but they went to see uncle Lake yesterday. I missed them and Ruby last night. I came home and had lunch and a beverage, and then I napped for about two hours. Jane was working her butt off all day getting the apartment cleaned up, laundry done, luggage packed. She did a great job, and we only had one carry-on each, plus our personal item. I put her iPad and my tablet in my shoulder bag along with a lot of other small electrical equipment (chargers and so on). Made it pretty darn heavy.
We left at 4:00 PM with plenty of time to get there and get checked in. Parked outdoors off-site and took a shuttle to the terminal. None of us have traveled that much, and we had to look for the appropriate TSA area. It was all of the way at one end of the departure area, and the line was long. A TSA agent told us that the check-in area at the other end of the terminal (several hundred yards away) wasn’t busy and sent us there. My legs are not going to recover from this trip.
The first TSA checkpoint is a photo ID and document check. You have to look into some sort of camera. I think the machine is supposed to compare your face to a database of persons who are on a do-not-fly list. I also think it compares your face to your photo on the picture ID you present. This was the first day after the TSA required people to have the enhanced ID cards that have been in the works for so long.
For efficiency’s sake, the TSA doesn’t care whether you’re traveling with companions. Four photo ID stations fed just one line through the x-ray and inspection area. Jane and her mother went through one of the stations, but the agents insisted that I go to another that wasn’t occupied. That got us separated for the rest of the security check, and that made Jane nervous.
This is the point in the process where wardrobe matters. Normally, I wear jeans with a belt and suspenders. Several days prior, I tried ditching the suspenders, hoping my pants would not immediately head south. They didn’t. But when I tried it without the belt too… oops! I came up with the great idea of wearing scrubs from work and I was golden. But I nearly forgot to take off my shoes. I had all of our electronics, and so, with two tablets, two phones, shoes, and carry-on, I needed four trays to go through the scanner. Then, I forgot that my passport was in my pocket along with my evening medications, so I got frisked. And I didn’t listen and stacked the two tablets and got scolded by the TSA agent who had to put them in separate bins, so I had to reassemble and dress from five bins. Jane thought I had been arrested, I took so long. Things went smoother after that. We had allowed plenty of time and had a chance to chill in the boarding area for our 7:41 PM flight.
We couldn’t let them go to that smoothly though. I misread the boarding passes and had Jane sit in the wrong seat. She sat in a middle seat when her ticket was for an aisle. My bad. The airline didn’t seem to care, though. The food we were served wasn’t anything to rave about. Paid ten bucks each for some chips, almond butter crackers and cheese. The flight was delayed, but only by about 15 minutes. We arrived in Seattle at about 10:00 PM local, 1:00 AM home, and I was sleepy. The hotel we had reserved had a 24-hour shuttle, but when we called, we were given nonintuitive instructions about where to catch the shuttle. It was only “ten minutes” away, but time dilation that often accompanies traveling made that ten minutes last 30 minutes or longer. We finally got to the room and slept.
PS. The awful part I have not yet mentioned is that God decided to afflict me with a cold for this trip I had anxiously anticipated for months. Jane had come down with a cold about two weeks before and had been miserable. She volunteered to sleep on the couch, but I knew I was already damned. I accepted my fate rather than have her sacrifice a week of poor sleep because I knew it was inevitable. I was going to get sick. On the morning of our trip, I noticed a little rawness in my throat, and by plane boarding time, I was sneezing and wiping my nose. I know I deserve my fate for not wearing a mask on the plane, but I sincerely hope that I didn’t pass it on.